Design strategy - 5 briefs: OUGD503

As part of the responsive module we were asked to pick 5 briefs from the following links to produce work for:

www.dandad.org/

www.istd.org.uk/

www.ycnonline.com/

www.graphiccompetitions.com/

As i have never entered any competitions before, i think this is a great opportunity for me let my create flare out, and not hold back on design ideas. 

I have browsed the design website sand came across a few briefs i would like to take part in.

Here are the following:

Douwe Egberts

Generate excitement about Douwe Egberts coffee, and create a desire for better coffee at home

Background

Douwe Egberts has been roasting and blending coffee since Egberts Douwes opened his first shop in the Netherlands, in 1753. Since then it’s grown and become the third largest coffee roaster in the world. In countries like the Netherlands, Germany and France, Douwe Egberts ground coffee enjoys a commanding market presence, and in the Netherlands it outsells even Coca-Cola!

Douwe Egberts came to the UK in 1984 with a range of instant coffees and two years later brought it’s ground coffees to market. With its established heritage in Europe and superior quality, Douwe Egberts Ground coffee quickly became the market leader in the UK. Never one to rely on its heritage, Douwe Egberts has been at the forefront of innovation, and created the single serve coffee segment with the launch of the Senseo system in 2001.

Over the last 10 years, Douwe Egberts have tried to maintain relevance with consumers, through new products such as the Inspirations range of Instant coffee, and the new-look range of ‘Lifestyle’ ground coffee. In the last year, we have also launched our new brand identity, with the hope of appealing to younger consumers. Most recently we have launched ‘The Flavour Collective’ – a range of three flavoured instant coffees designed to bring variety for coffee lovers and engage younger consumers with instant coffee.

Coffee, and more broadly hot drinks are becoming the territory of older drinkers, and that is particularly true for Douwe Egberts. Our main consumers are 50+ with very few younger people choosing to drink coffee at home.

Background to the Business

For more than 250 years, the company and the Douwe Egberts brand have been synonymous with high quality coffee. This global company is one of the largest dedicated players in the industry, with revenues of €2.6bn for the fiscal year ending in July 2011 and almost 7,500 employees. They are the third largest manufacturer in the world with ambitions to move up to second place through a combination of expansion, innovation and value-added offerings. Their craftsmanship and knowledge of coffee is built on decades of experience and insight into our consumers’ preferences.

This is a highly competitive industry; the brand’s ambitious plans for growth are underpinned by ‘Challenger’ and innovative thinking.

Background to the Category

Over the past five years, world retail coffee sales have grown year on year by almost 8%, growth has come from every segment within premium coffee sales. The wider availability of high-quality coffee, the fact that most High Streets now have up-market coffee shops and more knowledgeable consumers keen to sample different varieties of coffee are the primary drivers of growth.

The Douwe Egberts Brand in the UK

This brief covers Douwe Egberts coffee in the UK. The brand in the UK has a retail value of £64m. The largest part of the portfolio is Instant coffee valued, followed by Ground coffee and then Single Serve Pods.

The brand in the UK has a mission to ‘Challenge and disrupt the category by building a dynamic brand that consumers love’.

The brand vision is to ‘Inspire and surprise shoppers and consumers to discover and explore the brand’s coffee experiences’.

Brand positioning: Coffee is one of life’s pleasures. Here at Douwe Egberts our master blenders draw on 250 years of experience to bring you the distinguished coffee experience you deserve.

Brand essence: No one knows coffee like we do.

The brand behaviours: Passionate, confident, daring, knowledgeable, expert, optimistic, authentic, warm, trustworthy, engaging, ‘Challenger’, brave, modern traditional, premium, versatile, loyal.

Brand assets: Heritage (250 years of expertise), roasting and blending expertise,the brand name, iconic packaging, master blenders.

The brand acts as a ‘Challenger’ brand, believing ideas are the currency that fund growth, they outsmart rather than outspend. Trying to do more with less is a thought central to the brand’s ‘Challenger’ approach. As the brand isn’t market leader they make sure they make their stamp by being ‘Thought Leader’ in the category.

The Challenge

As the drinks market becomes even bigger, with different kinds of water, energy drinks, fruit teas and infusions, coffee is becoming ever-more sidelined at home, and the coffee shops are picking up that custom. Douwe Egberts coffee has a lot of ‘love’ from people, and a high awareness of the brand name, but people tend to associate it with their parents and grandparents, and the special coffee that gets bought at Christmas. Because of this, the DE brand is seen as old-fashioned, out of touch, and irrelevant to consumers. Whilst our 250 years of heritage are what make us special, it also makes us look old!

We have recently become a pure-play coffee & tea company, DE Masterblenders 1753. This means that now we are totally focussed on creating excellence in every cup of coffee we make. We employ some of the best blenders, roasters and tasters in our business, who live & breathe coffee every day. See the links section to find out more on our website.

The Brief

Develop a creative campaign, new product, new packaging or communications idea for Douwe Egberts in the UK to appeal to younger consumers, to increase their awareness of Douwe Egberts and ideally have a theme that can extend across different media. It needs to present Douwe Egberts as a brand that is contemporary, without losing its heritage and expertise. We know that people in the 18-30 age bracket will happily spend their money in a Starbucks or a Costa, but not drink coffee at home. The challenge in this brief is to find a way of making coffee drunk at home as appealing as coffee drunk in a coffee shop.

Creative Requirements

To get younger people to re-appraise or discover the Douwe Egberts brand. Generate excitement about Douwe Egberts coffee, and create a desire for better coffee at home using any form of communication you feel appropriate. Get younger people talking about Douwe Egberts Coffee in a positive way, and try to shake the ‘old-fashioned’ image, without losing the heritage and expertise.

You can incorporate ‘For the Love of Coffee’ or ‘No-one knows Coffee like we do’ (our taglines) into the piece, but that is not essential. The new brand identity, logo and packs can be found in the project pack.

Target Audience

Coffee Lovers & Coffee Connectors. 25+, demographic classification ABC1, educated, a thirst for knowledge, curious, pursuers of pleasure, like to travel, experimental, foodies, passionate, love life, pay for quality.

Brand Benefits

At Douwe Egberts, we’ve been roasting and blending coffee for over 250 years, which means nobody knows coffee like we do. Every cup of our coffee is expertly blended, roasted and tasted by our Master Blenders to ensure that it’s perfect before it leaves our factory.

Mandatories

The DE logo (red seal + wording) must be used, this is included in the Project Pack. The Brand Guidelines that you’ll find in the Project Pack refer to our corporate logo so please disregard this and just use the relevant information within the guidelines.

The creative/campaign/product must bring a modern/contemporary feel to the brand.

Deliverables, Artwork and Additional Information

For guidance on how to submit your work, please adhere to the main deliverables information which can be found here.

Any additional supporting information referenced in the brief can be found in the supporting project pack.

UK Greetings

Design a range of greetings cards

Background

Imagine seeing your card designs on the shelves of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waterstones, Paperchase, Clintons and independent card shops, and on window sills across the country.

UK Greetings are the UK’s market leading direct-to-retailer publisher, and manufacturer of greetings cards.

Based in West Yorkshire, we supply to the major supermarkets, high street specialists and independent retailers in the UK and internationally.

UKG have several established sub-brands, each priding itself on delivering something unique, giving UK Greetings a distinctive edge and sound reputation for diverse and eclectic product. More information on these can be found at ukgreetings.co.uk

The Creative Challenge

The greetings card industry is a very competitive market. We are constantly looking for ways to stand out from the crowd, whether this be through an exciting card format, interesting use of finishes (emboss, foil, glitter, varnish, gems, googly eyes, printed card attachments, bespoke attachments, buttons etc), or simply stunning designs that stand out from the competition.

Target Audience

16-34 year olds.

Considerations

Think about the sending situation. Why would you be sending them a card? What is the occasion? Birthday card to a friend or to a family relation? Something to say good luck, get well? Congratulations? You’re getting married? Simply ‘I love you’ or ‘I miss you’?

Who is the recipient? At what stage in their lives are they? Single, married, with children, off to college/university, passing their driving test, losing someone close to them?

Remember who you are targeting. Who is going to be actually buying the card for the recipient? Although you need to design a card that targets the recipient, it’s the person who is buying the card we need to impress and convince.

Also please note: Women buy far more cards than men.

Is the card design-led or copy-led (could be a quote, just a ‘hello’ or a longer message)?

Mandatories

You must design at least 4 cards. These will include:

• Front page designs.
• Designs for the inside of the cards (this may or may not include an insert).
• A range name and logo to be printed on the back page.
• Remember to think about the envelope colour or design.
• Suggested card sizes – 159mm x 159mm, 121mm x 184mm, 137mm x 159mm, 110mm x 210mm but don’t let that restrict you.
• Add 3mm bleed to all artwork supplied.

Preparation

Take a look at what is out there. Visit Paperchase, Clintons, WH Smith and local card shops. A successful range often does something different to what is already out there.

Do some research into what types of cards are being sent to this target group and why.

Deliverables, Artwork and Additional Information

For guidance on how to submit your work, please adhere to the main deliverables information which can be found here.

Any additional supporting information referenced in the brief can be found in the supporting project pack.

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• Packaging Design
• Brand: L'Artisan Parfumeur
• Agency: jkr

Brief

Re-envisage the L’Artisan Parfumeur brand for the 21st Century by creating a design solution for a new unisex range of scents.

Creative challenge

Traditional French fragrance houses are steeped in a rich history of style and imagery. L’Artisan Parfumeur wants to break with this convention. Their latest collection is uniquely based around bottled emotions. Your challenge is to showcase this range by breaking the rules of conventional perfume packaging.

There are four scents, each capturing a different human feeling:

Scent a: Passion and desire. Sex and lust. Raw and physical.

Scent b: Perfect, sublime love. An interior emotion.

Scent c: Excitement and fear. Adrenaline, exhilaration and thrill.

Scent d: Elegant and dignified. Stormy yet still.

• Photography
• Brand: Dazed & Confused

Brief

Create a portrait of contemporary youth.

Creative challenge

Is culture drowning in a sea of visual mediocrity? Are truly iconic images devoured and disregarded in a relentless and unstoppable stream of click-consumption? In 10 years, which images from today will stand the test of time? Which will define our generation?

Dazed & Confused magazine want you to create your own portrait of contemporary youth. A single image that will be just as relevant in a decade. An image that captures this period of time, with determination and attitude.

Shoot your friends, your peers. Capture reality, fantasy, people with interesting stories, people with great ideas. Something real. Avoid the clichés. Seize the chance to define the visual language of your world in 2012/13.

Additional prize

Selected winning work will be showcased on Dazed & Confused / dazeddigital.com

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• Applied Graphics
• Brand: Batiste

Brief

Create a trend-led graphic identity for a limited edition range of Batiste products.

Creative challenge

Make Batiste a must have product for every beauty toolkit, appealing to new customers and engaging with existing ones.

Build the Batiste brand by creating four new graphic identities and fragrances. They should fit in with the current range but have stand out shelf appeal. Demonstrate this across a number of practical applications, including packaging, website and point of sale.

Batiste are fashion led, utilising trends to ensure that they have significant shelf appeal and strong brand loyalty. How can the graphic identity work harder to sell the varieties of Batiste in an instant, whilst also clearly demonstrating the full potential of the product?